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My friend Jaya, who is from India gave me an amazing Tikka Masala recipe! All through dinner my husband and I were going back and forth on how wonderful it was and came closer to the restaurant style Tikka Masala than any other we’ve tried, and we’ve tested quite a few recipes. I was surprised to find out that the sauce didn’t have any dairy! Which is even better as dairy is mucus forming so I try to not do too much, especially in winter months when there seems to be more head colds going around. I deleted one of my other Tikka Masala recipes from this blog as this one is SO much better, but I’m keeping the crock pot Tikka up for now…but if I try this in the crockpot and it works, I may be updating that as well.

Here are your ingredients, and notice I’ve already created the marinade for the paneer (or you could do chicken) and it’s resting while I chop the other veggies.

Here’s a close up of a couple of the spices. I buy mine from Sprouts, but a lot of grocery stores should carry them on their spice/baking aisle, or if you have an Idian grocery store close by, head there because you’ll also find your Indian Green Chile there as well.

In a frying pan over medium heat add 2 tablespoons oil. Once it is hot add the chopped onions and cook until translucent about 5 minutes.

Add the chopped green chili, 1 tablespoon chili powder, 1 teaspoon turmeric, 1 teaspoon garam masala, a pinch of salt and stir to combine. Cook for one minute; this will help release the flavor in the spices and you’ll smell a wonderful aroma. Add the chopped tomatoes and 1/2 cup water. Cover and let Cook 10 minutes.

Take this tomato mixture and transfer it to a blender and blend until smooth.

Once blended put the sauce back in your pan on the stove and add water a tablespoon at a time to thin it according to your preference (I usually add 1- 2 tablespoons) once this is simmering add your grilled Paneer and Cook for five more minutes. Serve over brown basmati rice (or whatever rice you like) and garnish with chopped cilantro.

For the Sauce:
2 T coconut oil
2 medium white onions (yellow is too sweet)
1 Tbsp chili powder
1 tsp turmeric powder
1/2 tsp garam masala
3 large Roma tomatoes (romas are better for sauces, more meaty)
1 indian green chile, chopped (these are smaller and thinner than a jalapeno; if you don’t have an Indian market nearby and you can’t find this at a store, I would try doing 1/2 a jalapeno…if it’s not spicy enough, once the sauce is all made, you could add in more)
cilantro for garnish

Marinate the paneer in 1/4 cup yogurt, 1 tablespoon chili powder, 1 teaspoon turmeric powder, half teaspoon garam masala, half of the juice from a lemon, and 1 tablespoon oil and a pinch of salt. Allow it to sit for at least 10 to 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, grill or pan fry the paneer (or chicken). Add any extra marinade to your tomato mixture. Take this tomato mixture and transfer it to a blender and blend until smooth.

Once blended put the sauce back in your pan on the stove and add water a tablespoon at a time to thin it according to your preference (I usually add 1 to 2 tablespoons) once this is simmering add your grilled Paneer and cook for five more minutes. Serve over brown basmati rice (or whatever rice you like) and garnish with chopped cilantro.

*If vegan, you could totally do this without the paneer or the chicken. You could just serve this sauce plain over brown basmati rice or add any of these: firm cubed tofu, cashews, golden raisins, chopped veggies including potatoes, peas, carrots etc

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I have my second ever half marathon coming up this Saturday morning and I’m a feeling a little nervous. I feel prepared, I trained a lot over the past four months, usually running 6 days a week, doing some speed work outs, long runs and easy runs each week, and also doing some yoga and weights mid week, but I ran this same half last year and I ran it hard, and I really want to get a personal record. But it may not happen. And that makes me nervous. But I know that in the long run, it doesn’t really matter and that PR or not, it’s gonna be okay.

Besides all my running, I’m also trying to get really nutritious and quality foods in this week(and always), and I’ve already got my dinner, the night before the race, and my breakfast that morning, all planned out. I’ve been trying lots of new recipes from Runner’s World magazine and my ‘Run Fast Eat Slow’ cook book and this is a recipe I lightly adapted from the Runner’s World magazine. Scott and I LOVED this Frittata, though most of our kiddos didn’t appreciate all the chunky veggies. But, since I don’t always cater to our children’s tastes anyway, because I know that they need to experience these foods so that they will one day develop a taste for them, we still make them and I will for sure be making this one again!

You can buy already cubed butternut squash to save prep time, but to save money I usually buy the whole squash and then peel and cut it myself. And when I say ‘peel’, what I really mean is, I take a sharp knife and slice off all the skin with a downward motion on my cutting board. Once it’s all cubed, I put mine on a large rimmed baking sheet with a silicone liner, drizzle with my olive oil, salt and garlic and cook it in the oven at 425 degrees for about 30 minutes. You can do this step hours, or even a day, before you throw the dish together. If not using within a couple of hours, cover your squash and store in the fridge until you’re ready.

Cube butternut squash, if you haven’t already. Place on baking sheet, toss with 3 Tbsp olive oil, sprinkle with 1/4 tsp salt and garlic powder, and cook in 425 degree oven for about 30 minutes. Set aside.

Heat 1 Tbsp olive oil in cast iron skillet (mine is 12 inches) over medium heat. Saute 1 sliced onion and cook, stirring until brown and soft, about 10 minutes. In a bowl, whisk together eggs, 1/4 tsp salt and pepper. Stir in feta and 2 cups roasted cubed butternut squash. Pour into the cast iron skillet with onion and stir gently. Transfer to oven and bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes, until eggs have set. Serve warm.

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I love stir fry! I often eat them for lunch and I love that I can take whatever random leftover veggies I need to use from my fridge, throw them into a pan with some already cooked brown rice, a little sauce and some cashews and I have a healthy, yummy meal in very little time! I make brown rice in my rice cooker about once a week and make enough that I’ll have some leftover for this very reason. Another way to make this meal even faster is to chop up your veggies before hand and just have them ready in your fridge. Usually when I make dinner, if a recipe calls for part of a pepper/onion/broccoli etc, I will just cut up the whole thing which saves time later because I don’t have to get my cutting board and knife out again and wash them etc.

This is the sauce I use when I make this quick stir fry recipe (I also have a recipe for a sauce I make from scratch that I’ll share another time). I either use the coconut aminos or the teriyaki flavored coconut aminos, both taste great, and you could also use soy sauce or braggs liquid aminos.

Here’s a picture of another stir fry I made with some fresh pineapple I had on hand. I love that you can play around and add in whatever you like. Sometimes I’ll throw in a 1/2 cup of quinoa too.

Melt coconut oil in a wok over medium/high heat. Add vegetables and allow to cook until softened and onions are translucent, adding 1 Tbsp water at a time, if necessary, to prevent sticking and burning about 3-5 minutes. Add cashews, coconut aminos, pepper flakes and brown rice and stir to combine. Turn heat to low and allow to cook for 2 more minutes. Serve immediately.

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December is an abnormally busy month with all the recitals and performances we have added into our already very full schedule, and because of that, I’m finding that the only way we’re going to get home cooked, warm meals is to prepare in the morning or afternoon, which means we’re doing a lot of crock pot meals this month. I’ve taken a few soup recipes we enjoy and made them crock pot friendly, so if you’re a busy and need to prep in the mornings like me, give this one a try. And it is more of a medium heat when it comes to spices, so if you’re more on the mild side, omit the jalapeno and you could even decrease the chipotle chili powder as well, but we love spicy foods, even the kiddos, so we do it all!

This is fairly easy, and it probably only takes about 10-15 minutes of work. You’ll chop and saute your veggies, and while they’re sauteing, I mix together all my spices and put them into the crock pot, then I put the cooked veggies, tomatoes and a cup of the broth in the blender, blend til smooth, dump that into the crock pot with the rest of the broth, add your torn up corn tortillas and cook it on low all day or on high for about 4 hours.

Once it’s all done cooking, add in coconut milk and some black beans for texture and extra yumminess! Serve this warm and top with whatever toppings you like; I LOVE avocado so that’s always a must for me, and my kids also add some cheese and tortilla chips.

In a frying pan, saute vegetables in olive oil over medium heat until vegetables are tender. Chop and saute your veggies, and while they’re sauteing, mix together all the spices and put them into the crock pot. Put the cooked veggies, tomatoes and a cup of the broth in the blender, blend til smooth, dump that into the crock pot with the rest of the broth, add your torn up corn tortillas and cook it on low all day or on high for about 4 hours. Add coconut milk and black beans and stir to combine. Serve warm topped with any of your favorite toppings ( I LOVE avocado).

*You can also make this on the stove; just saute veggies in a larger stock pot and add spices, broth and tomatoes(blending the tomatoes in blender or with immersion blender) and bring to a boil. Tear the tortillas and add them to the soup. Cover and turn the heat down to low and simmer 30-45 minutes or until tortillas are breaking apart. Remove from heat and add the coconut milk and beans.

Although I’m not vegan or gluten-free, I do a lot less dairy than most because my stomach can’t handle too much, and if you’ve ever read The China Study, which is the most comprehensive study ever done on nutrition, you’ll know that cutting down on all animal products is a good thing (and I didn’t say cutting out, but cutting down. Should be less than 10% of your diet). So I love that I can get the creaminess from this recipe from cashews and sweet potato and almond milk, all blended together, but then I use a little bit of cheddar cheese (only 1 cup), but you can always use the dairy-free cheese as well for the vegan version.

You’ll want to start off by cooking your pasta elbows, gluten-free or not(I used whole wheat), and peeling and cooking your sweet potato in the microwave for 6 minutes. Or you can cook it in the oven at 400 degrees for almost an hour, but if you do it that way, don’t peel it before hand, just wait for it to cool and slip the skin off. Once the pasta is done, drain the water, place them in a large mixing bowl, drizzle a little olive oil over top and give it a stir so they don’t stick together. Set that aside and you’ll combine the rest of your ingredients in a blender and blend until it’s smooth. If it’s too thick and your blender is having difficulty blending, just add a little more milk about 1/4 c at a time, giving it a stir and then blending again.

Once it’s all creamy, dump it over your macaroni noodles and stir to combine.

Grease a 9×13 pan (I smear coconut oil over the whole inside of the pan) and then dump your mac and cheese inside and spread it even. Bake for 15-20 minutes at 400 degrees.

Cook noodles according to directions on package. Meanwhile, peel the sweet potato and cook in the microwave for 6 minutes (or in the oven, unpeeled, at 400 degrees for 1 hour; can do this before hand). Drain noodles, dump back into your pot, drizzle with a little olive oil and mix so they don’t stick together. Set aside. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

In a blendtec or food processor, add almond milk first and then all the other ingredients and mix until a creamy consistency. If you need to add more milk so your blender won’t burn out from the thickness, add 1/4 cup at a time. Pour over your noodles in the pot and stir to combine.

Grease the bottom and sides of a 9×13 pan with coconut oil, or something like it. Add stirred mac n’ cheese into the 9×13 pan and place in the oven. Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes at 400 degrees

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We eat a lot of different salads for dinner during the summer; it’s nice to have something cool to eat on a hot day. I’ll typically add whatever veggies I have on hand in my fridge at the moment, so it changes from week to week, and in the pasta salad pictured below we have tomatoes, celery, bell pepper, cubed cheese, white beans and onion. Sometimes we’ll add nuts or serve some chicken or pepperoni on the side for the meat lovers in our house.

I will sometimes use an Italian salad dressing or something similar for convenience, but I actually love homemade dressing so much more; it really makes the salad. So if I have 5 minutes, I’ll whip this up.

Here are your ingredients for the dressing:

Whisk it all together in a glass measuring dish and stick it in the fridge while you cook your pasta.

We use various shapes but one of our favorites is the bowtie, and it’s fun when we get a pasta with a little color. We cooked up a bag of costco pasta which is just over a pound, drained it, rinsed it with cold water as I swish the pasta around with my hand (to help quickly cool it down…we don’t want our cheese cubes melting onto our pasta), then transfer it to a large mixing bowl, add the dressing, stir it to combine and then you can serve it from there or transfer it to a pretty bowl. If you’re not going to eat it right away, you can store it in the fridge for at least a day.

Combine all your pasta salad dressing ingredients into a glass measuring dish and whisk to combine. Set aside, in fridge. Follow package directions for uncooked pasta, bringing water to a boil and cooking until done. While it’s cooking, chop up any combination of veggies/cheese/beans/meat you like and place in a large mixing bowl and set aside. Dump pasta into a strainer over your kitchen sink, then rinse with cold water as you move pasta around with your hand (be careful, it’s hot). Once pasta is cool, add it to your veggies in the large mixing bowl. Pour the dressing over top. Stir it all together to combine. Serve right away or cover and store in fridge.

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Tikka Masala is something both my husband and I often order at Indian restaurants, though he gets the chicken and I get the paneer (soft cheese cubes). I’ve tried several copy-cat recipes at home and this is one that we’ve enjoyed multiple times. I love that you can cook it in the crock pot because I just don’t always have time to fix something right before dinner, especially on those days when I’m running kids to piano, soccer, scouts, etc.

I also love that this sauce is made from scratch so you don’t need to go to the store and buy jars of sauces. I always have these ingredients on hand, though if you’ve never before cooked Indian or Thai foods, you will probably need to get a few spices like Garam Masala, Turmeric and ground Coriander, which will last awhile.

You can substitute sweet potatoes for chicken, or you can also use both, which I did here because I was too lazy to make my own non-vegetarian dish, just for me, so instead I cook it all together and then I pick out chicken and hand it to my husband or Charles who always love to have extra :).

Once your chicken and veggies are diced, put everything into a greased crock pot. You’ll cook this on low for about 4 hours or high for 2.

Grease the inside of your crock pot with olive oil. Add all ingredients to crock pot and stir to combine. Cover and cook for 4 hours on low or 2 hours on high. Serve warm over Indian rice. Leftovers can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days.

I love salads and eat them year round, but in the winter, I like to add some warmer, more filling foods like black beans, quinoa, sweet potatoes etc. This salad recipe has them all (you can use brown rice or quinoa; I use whatever I have on hand in the fridge). The amounts in this salad depend on how many people you are serving. It’s usually just me eating a salad at lunch, so I just pull out all the ingredients from the fridge and throw whatever I feel like on top of my bed of lettuce. I’ve included a couple of recipes below 1) roasted sweet potato cubes and 2)creamy avocado dressing, both of which I love to have on my salad, but feel free to use another dressing you have on hand and leave out anything you don’t like.

Creamy Avocado Dressing

This salad is so filling and satisfying and packed full of amazing nutrients from all the various plant foods and grains.

If you are having this for dinner with family or friends, serve it like you would Hawaiin Haystacks with all the ingredients, in individual bowls, out in the center of the table. I would use larger bowls for serving the lettuce, rice and beans and the other ingredients are in smaller dishes. I usually serve this by starting with salad and then adding as much as I want of all ingredients listed (feel free to add some of your own that might go with this Mexican-styled theme).

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a 9×13 baking dish with tin foil. Place sweet potato chunks on foil, drizzle with oil and spices and then toss together with a large spoon. Spread out over the foil and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until edges begin to brown.

Cut the avocado in half and scoop out the flesh and put in a blender or food processor. Add the rest of the ingredients and blend until creamy and smooth (may have to scrape down sides with a rubber spatula and go again). This dressing can be used as a dip for vegetable sticks or tossed with greens for a salad.

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My dad was born and raised in Mexico, and my mom is from Washington state. They raised us in Washington but we had several Mexican traditions that we continued to do over the years. I remember quite a few Christmases when we’d sit down around the table (mostly the women in our family and some extended family) and pat masa into corn husks, making tamales. I think Christmas is the perfect day to make tamales because you have the family home and so there are lots of hands to help make each individual tamale. Scott and I made tamales last year on Christmas and we loved them so much that we’ve decided to continue that tradition with our family.

I am a vegetarian so we make some for me that are filled with mozarella cheese and some diced jalapeno, and some that are filled with shredded Mexican chicken.

I found these corn husks in the produce area of our local grocery store, but you could also find them down the Mexican food aisle. Be sure you soak the corn husks in water, like I’m doing below in this picture. I just soak them for several minutes to soften them. I used this masa harina to make the masa, along with lard and water. The masa turns out like a cookie dough consistency, maybe just a tiny bit thinner.

You pat the masa into a corn husk like so, leaving some space at the bottom. Sometimes I’ll stick two small corn husks together to make a large one. Here’s the veggie tamale just before we folded it in thirds and rolled it.

And the chicken tamale

Fold in thirds, like so:

I steam our tamales in a large stock pot with a steamer attachment. We fit about 18 in here. I remember my aunt making some sort of a tinfoil contraption in the bottom of her stock pot that she used as a center piece and would lean tamales against it, and she could make a lot more that way.

Fillings:
-Chicken breast in a red or green mexican sauce (I like this chicken recipe)
-Pork in a red or green sauce
-Thin stick of Mozarella cheese(or grated mozarella works too) with chopped jalapeno (~1/2 tsp)

In a large mixing bowl, soak about 20 large corn husks for several minutes to soften them(if you don’t have enough large corn husks, you can put a couple smaller ones together). Bring a large stock pot with a steamer attached, to a boil; fill water up about half way because you’ll be steaming for about an hour an a half and you don’t want all your water to evaporate. Whip the lard until fluffy. Blend in everything else, adding enough water that the masa is not stiff and is easy to smear over husks, but not watery. Smear a thin layer of masa, about 1/4 inch thick, over each husk, patting it in, and leaving a couple of inches at the bottom of the husk, without masa. Add 1-2 Tbsp of filling to the center. Fold in thirds over the filling, loosely sealing the ends of the masa by pressing together. Place in a large steamer, stacked, and steam until masa dough is firm, about 1 hour and a half. To check if done, open one of the larger ones and see if the masa has cooked through the middle; sometimes you’ll have to take out the smaller ones first and then cook the bigger ones another ten minutes or so.

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We were able to spend the Thanksgiving holiday with my husband’s family in North Carolina which was wonderful. Any family time is wonderful! While there, his sister had us over for dinner one night and made a Bean and Lentil Chili that we loved. I got the recipe from her, made a couple of little changes and we had cornbread and chili for dinner this week which was perfect with our freezing temperatures here in Utah.

It took me a little over half hour to make this, and while it cooked (cooks for 30 minutes), I threw together a cornbread recipe and got that cooking at the same time so that everything was ready together :). I will share that cornbread recipe next week so be sure to check back next Wednesday for that.

In the recipe, once I’ve cooked all the diced veggies and the lentils etc, I used my immersion blender to blend up and thicken the chili for about 15 seconds. If you don’t have an immersion blender, you can either just leave it as is, or if you like it thicker like I do, put about half of the chili in your blender (be careful cuz it’s hot!), pulse it a few times and then dump it back in with the rest of your chili. I dice my veggies pretty fine because my kiddos don’t love big chunks of anything.

Serve with toppings of your choice like grated cheese, sour cream (and if you made it too hot for your liking, this will bring down the temp), sliced avocado, tortilla chips, etc.

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 can chick peas (garbanzo), drained and rinsed
1 Tbsp honey
optional: oven dried organic roma tomatoes, chopped
optional: 1 tsp tapatio hot sauce (this is if you like your chili with more of a kick; which my hubby and I do. My nose was running b/c of the heat :))

In a large pot, over medium high heat add the olive oil, onion, celery, and carrots. Saute until the onions have softened then add the garlic and cook for one minute. Add the spices and cook another 2 minutes until fragrant.

Add the broth, lentils and tomato sauce and raise the heat to high, bringing the broth to a boil. Once it boils, reduce the heat to medium and simmer for about 30 minutes until lentils are tender. If you have an immersion blender, put it in and blend for about 15-30 seconds, which will thicken the chili. If you don’t have an immersion blender, you can put about 1/2 of the chili into a normal blender, puree, and then dump back into the pot; but be careful, because it’s hot.

Add the beans and honey and optional tomatoes and hot sauce. Serve warm in bowls with toppings of your choice. Some favorites are grated cheese, sour cream, avocado slices, tortilla chips. I also love to have this with a side of cornbread.

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Real Foods Mom

Hello!

I'm Elisa. As a mom of five, I have developed a great appreciation for good health. I know health is not just a matter of luck. I know that our bodies do best when we eat real foods: foods that come from the earth and which haven't been highly processed. This blog will be a means for me to share real food recipes my family enjoys. To read more about my story, click the picture above.....